


Perfect

by misslmf



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Episode: s05e25 Legs From Here To Homeworld, Spoilers for Episode: s05e25 Legs From Here To Homeworld, Supportive Pearl, White Diamond is horrible to her Pearl, White Pearl deserves nice things, White Pearl doesn’t feel good enough, this hiatus is killing me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 00:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15425010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misslmf/pseuds/misslmf
Summary: White Pearl was always told she was never good enough and went through a lot to become the ‘perfect Pearl’Can one renegade Pearl and the help of a gem hybrid change that?





	Perfect

" _Whiiiiiite! White!"_

_Pink Diamond's adamant voice shook through the halls of the Homeworld Base. The pitter patter of her feet could be heard all throughout. White Diamond lifted her head with a roll of her eyes. As Pink entered the room White rubbed her brow and plastered on a picture perfect smile._

_"Hello starlight!" She said in cheery voice. "What can I do for you?"_

_"My Pearl won't listen to me!" Pink whined._

_As she spoke those words, the Pear didn't even react. She had pale pink skin and two bubblegum pink space buns on either side of her head. She wore a magenta leotard with the stomach missing to show her gem. A thin almost see through skirt billowed our from the waist down to her knees leaving the front of her legs showing. On her arms were a pair of shoulder length just a shade darker than her skin._

How naïve _, White thought as she wrinkled her nose. She knew she shouldn't have given her a Pearl at such a young age. Now look where she was._

_"Oh now we can't have that can we?" White bent down so she could be almost face to face with Pink. She smiled at her and tapped the Pearl on the head with a long black fingernail._

_The Pearl immediately looked up with a gasp. She glanced between the two Diamonds in front of her and blushed. Lowering herself into a curtesy, she said quietly:  
"My Diamonds."_

_"Why is it that you won't listen to dear Pink here?" White said sweetly, while the menacing smile on her face said otherwise._

_"Pardon my Diamond?" The Pearl whispered, looking at the floor._

_"I said, why won't you listen to Pink? Or me evidently!" White growled._

_"I'm sorry my Diamond, it's just-"_

_"Just what?"_

_"My ears!" The Pearl yelled with her fists clenched and her eyes squeezed shut. White Diamond stepped back at her words with an almost disgusted look on her face._

_"Your_ ears _?"_

_"Yes my Diamond. They-" She paused for a second. "They're broken."_

_"_ Broken _?" White said in the same tone as before._

_Pink was standing awkwardly looking between the two gems. She felt bad now that she knew the true reason behind her Pearl not listening to her. She even regretted bringing her to White in the first place. Even Pink knew how she could get sometimes._

_"White, I can take her back, it's okay! I'll make sure she's okay." Pink smiled at her Pearl in a loving manner, which the Pearl received gladly._

_"No, I'll take her off your hands. I'll sort her out for you." White said with a shake for her head. "Here, I have something for you." She clapped her hands twice and another small Pearl appeared from behind White._

_That Pearl was wearing pink skirt with a yellow vest over top. Her sleeves were a cyan colour and her tan coloured hair parted at the forehead to show her gem._

_"Yes my Diamond?" White's Pearl said with her hands clasped together at her chest._

_"Go to Pink. She is your superior now. Thank you for your service to me." White waved her away into Pink's direction._

_"Thank you for letting me serve you my Diamond." White's Pearl said sweetly, scattering away to stand at Pink's side. She looked up at Pink and smiled fondly. Pink returned the look and patted her new Pearl's head, making her giggle._

_Her former Pearl looked at White Diamond nervously as she was called over slowly. She gave one last fleeting look to Pink, but the Diamond was already busy with her new servant._

_•••_

_"You are a horrid defective gem and I should shatter you right now!" White Diamond bellowed in her Pearl's face._

_Her Pearl moved her head away and squeezed her eyes shut so she didn't cry._

_"Oh, you like closing your eyes so much don't you my Pearl?" White hissed. "I wonder how it would be to have one permanently closed?"_

_Before the Pearl even knew what was happening, she was on the ground and her form was flickering slightly. She brought a shaking hand to her face and touched where her right eye would usually be. Instead, she only felt cracked skin. She whimpered and shrunk in on herself._

_"Stand up! Pearl's are not made to lie on the floor!" Her superior yelled, grabbing her small arm and pulling her up harshly._

_The Pearl shot up and her back bent even more._

_"Posture!" She shouted._

_Her Pearl snapped up straighter and tried to keep it there._

_"Are you presenting me to others or just standing there like a plank of wood?!"_

_The grimace was shining on the poor Pearl's face as she lifted her arms up, elbows bent as if she was showing her Diamond to the whole Homeworld._

_"Wipe that horrid look of your sorry excuse for a face."_

_Her Pearl managed to stretch her mouth into a ghostly smile. Her mind flashed to how she wasn't the perfect Pearl. She had seen so many other point their feet when announcing their superior's presence. She slowly managed to lift herself up onto pointe and stayed there, wobbling slightly._

_"I guess that will have to do. You are dismissed."_

_"Y-yes my Diamond." The Pearl let our a breath she didn't even know she had been holding and as she walked away, no one noticed her already fading colours disappear into just monochrome._

•••

"Pink Diamond's presence is required." White Pearl said with a thin smile on her lips. Her eyes darted around to the different gems around her. First to the two other Diamonds, then to a runty Amethyst guard, the horrific fusion, a _human_ of all things, and then... her.

That Pearl. The one looking at her feet nervously, only dating to look up at her fleetingly. The one who ruined everything.

"Come on Blue." Yellow said ushering her fellow Diamond over.

"Only _Pink_ Diamond's presence is necessary."

All of them stood in silence. Pink stared at her in wonder and White Pearl almost wanted to scoff at her. How could she not recognise her own former Pearl.

She felt no remorse in putting up a bubble over her and Pink immediately, ignoring the cries of 'Steven!' as they flew away.

They eventually got the White Diamonds ship and then she let down the bubble. She curtseyed to her Diamond and glided on the tips of her toes, disappearing through the wall. She had found over the years that a perfect Pearl should be able to get away as swiftly as possible and soon moving through walls so as not to be seen become nothing hard for her.

Once out of the room, she did not let her smile or posture leave her. The perfect Pearl should be prepared to be called in at any moment after all.

"Pearl?" A voice called from the distance.

White Pearl's smiled wavered for a split second at the sound of the familiar voice.

"It's me. Pink's Pearl?" The owner of the voice crept into view. She looked so different to when White Pearl had last seen her.

Long gone was the dress. Instead, she wore an aqua blue tunic with a lighter satin ribbon around her waist. Under the tunic she had some amber coloured tight fitting shorts. She was holding a thin, sharp swirling trident in her hand and she almost looked as though she was trying to hard behind it.

"A Pearl with a weapon. What was the universe come to." White Pearl couldn't stop the quip from escaping her mouth and she almost went to cover her mouth when she remember to stop herself.

' _Posture and presentation_!' She recalled White Diamond's voice shouting at her

"Yes, I guess times are changing." Pink's Pearl said with a weak smile.

"So are you serving the small one now or what?" White Pearl sneered. Why shouldn't she? Her Diamond wasn't there.

"I don't belong to anyone. I am my own Pearl." Pink's said adamantly.

White Pearl rolled her eyes. And spun round to go back to her Diamond when,

"I'm sorry!"

White Pearl turned round to find herself looking into the eyes of Pink's- _no, she said she doesn't belong to anyone_ \- Pearl.

"What?" White Pearl said.

"None of this should have happened to you. I should've spoken up. All of us should have. Yellow and Blue too. We all saw the changes in you but we did nothing. I'm sorry for that."

White was silent. No one had ever apologised to her before. Her arms were quivering, her legs too. She was so tired. So tired of standing the way she had, smiling the way she had for thousands of years. She felt a stinging in her eye.

"But I'm here now. I can help."

At those words, White collapsed into a heap on the floor. Everything aches, everything hurt. She felt liquid falling down her cheek. She lifted a shaking had to touch her face.

A tear.

Pearl sat down next to her and lifted White up into her arms, rocking her back and forth. She let her fellow Pearl sob softly into her chest.

"Shhh, it's okay. You're okay, you're safe here with me."

White was trying desperately to stop crying but nothing could stop the tears. She felt hands stroking her head and suddenly hair was tumbling down her shoulders and back. She looked up and saw Pearl smiling down at her. She had undone White's buns and let her hair down.

It felt... freeing. White Pearl felt nice. She felt what Pearl had been saying, when saying she belonged to no one, that she was her own Pearl. She decided she liked that feeling.

Freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> oh my lord this hiatus is killing me and it’s only been three days since Legs From Here To Homeworld came out 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this, it’s my first writing a Steven Universe one shot and I wouldn’t normally but after the most recent episode I just had to 
> 
> (also White Diamond is amazing even though she’ll probably be horrible I love her oh my god)


End file.
